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The Effect of Transport Policies on Car Use: Theory and Evidence from Latin American Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Gallego

    (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.)

  • Juan-Pablo Montero

    (Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.)

  • Christian Salas
Abstract
In an effort to reduce air pollution and congestion, Latin American cities have experimented with different policies to persuade drivers to give up their cars in favor of public transport. Two notable examples are the driving restriction program introduced in Mexico-City in November of 1989 –Hoy-No-Circula (HNC)– and the public transport reform carried out in Santiago in February of 2007 –Transantiago (TS). We develop a simple model of car use and ownership, and show that policies that may appear effective in the short run can be highly detrimental in the long run, i.e., after households have adjusted their stock of vehicles. Based on hourly concentration records of carbon monoxide, which comes primarily from vehicles exhaust, we find that household's responses to both HNC and TS have been remarkably similar and consistent with the above: an expected short-run response followed by a rapid (before 11 months) increase in the stock of vehicles.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Gallego & Juan-Pablo Montero & Christian Salas, 2011. "The Effect of Transport Policies on Car Use: Theory and Evidence from Latin American Cities," Documentos de Trabajo 407, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    • Handle: RePEc:ioe:doctra:407
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    File URL: https://www.economia.uc.cl/docs/doctra/dt-407.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

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    1. Hoy No Circula: The effect of transport policies on car use: Evidence from Latin American cities
      by UDADISI in UDADISI on 2013-10-10 01:27:00

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Xueying Lu, 2016. "Effectiveness of government enforcement in driving restrictions: a case in Beijing, China," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 18(1), pages 63-92, January.
    2. Prashant Bharadwaj & Matthew Gibson & Joshua Graff Zivin & Christopher Neilson, 2017. "Gray Matters: Fetal Pollution Exposure and Human Capital Formation," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(2), pages 505-542.
    3. Viard, V. Brian & Fu, Shihe, 2015. "The effect of Beijing's driving restrictions on pollution and economic activity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 98-115.
    4. Carnovale, Maria & Gibson, Matthew, 2012. "Effects of Milan's Congestion Charge," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt4j2755jq, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    5. Cerruti, Davide, 2013. "No free polluting anymore: The impact of a vehicle pollution charge on air quality," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150575, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Wang, Lanlan & Xu, Jintao & Zheng, Xinye & Qin, Ping, "undated". "Will a Driving Restriction Policy Reduce Car Trips? A Case Study of Beijing, China," RFF Working Paper Series dp-13-11-efd, Resources for the Future.
    7. Eugenio Figueroa & Andrés Gómez-Lobo & Pablo Jorquera & Felipe Labrín, 2012. "Develando econométricamente los impactos del Transantiago en la contaminación atmosférica de Santiago de Chile," Working Papers wp355, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    8. Michael Greenstone & B. Kelsey Jack, 2013. "Envirodevonomics: A Research Agenda for a Young Field," NBER Working Papers 19426, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public transport; driving restrictions; car use; air pollution; transport policies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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